Love in the Time of Global Warming, by Francesca Lia Block | Book Review #141

“Her life by the sea in ruins, Pen has lost everything in the Earth Shaker that all but destroyed the city of Los Angeles. She sets out into the wasteland to search for her family, her journey guided by a tattered copy of Homer’s Odyssey. Soon she begins to realize her own abilities and strength as she faces false promises of safety, the cloned giants who feast on humans, and a madman who wishes her dead. On her voyage, Pen learns to tell stories that reflect her strange visions, while she and her fellow survivors navigate the dangers that lie in wait. In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.”

Love in the Time of Global Warming is written by Francesca Lia Block. This book is a Young Adult Fantasy novel with a mixed theme of Dystopia and Mythology. This story also has a crap ton of LGBTQIA+ characters, which is amazing. This story ended up being a fast read for me at only 240 pages.

The book starts out with Penelope’s world being turned upside down. Everything Penelope has known her whole life is pretty much gone, replaced with a world that is distant and unfamiliar; sometimes even hazy. Throughout the book we see Pen live in this new world in a completely realistic way. There are some characters that pop in every once in a while as a “guide” I would say. Like those characters in video games that end up having the “This character would be useful on your quest” type deal.

Descriptions of this world and how Penelope sees things is great and amazing. I would never get tired of listening to what she has to say about the world around her. Penelope and the author have such a creative way of seeing the world around them. If I could have a totally different book that has the same type of creative writing, I don’t think I would ever be bored.

Block has written a very creative and honestly beautiful descriptions of both how the characters see each other and how Penelope sees the world around her. And the experiences that they all have. If I had to describe Love in the Time of Global Warming in one sentence I would say: “The world seems to be bursting at the seems.” And I mean that in a complimentary way because the way that this book is set up, coupled with the descriptions of everything, the world is bursting. Love in the Time of Global Warming is such an adventure. There are colours everywhere, there are..gosh, there are many different circumstances that make up this book and along the way I just fell in love with it all.

Another great thing about this book is that there was a plot twist that I didn’t see coming. At all!! The fact that this world could blindside me like that is a great feat that not many books have achieved in the past.

If you like books with happy endings then this book could be the one for you! The ending to this book had me grinning from ear to ear. I was so happy! The ending also leads on so the second book (I’m hoping) will start off where this book ended. I loved the ending. I’m so excited for the next book, The Island of Excess Love.

I really liked it. I didn’t think I would because I totally, 100%, judged the book by its cover before actually reading the book. There’s quite a bit of LGBTQIA+ representation, which is awesome. And the characters are incredibly realistic, and none of these characters die. And that’s honestly a bit of a feat considering how when LGBTQIA+ characters are usually written, they’re usually killed off by the end of the story.

Thank you for reading my review of Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block!

Welcome!

Hello, my name is Adele. I’m a 20-something year-old bibliophile, living on the West Coast of Canada. Here, on Adele Is Reading, I mainly post book reviews and bookish related content talking about the books I’ve read.
I mostly read Young Adult (YA), New Adult (NA), but I tend to branch out into other points of view (genres) as well.